https://youtu.be/7es6WkFvnu8
Dylan Bowman created this piece for a video contest at Walsingham Academy that promoted safe driving practices. (Courtesy Walsingham Academy)
The technology that sometimes distracts motorists is being used by Walsingham Academy students to educate teenagers on the dangers of inattentive driving.
The school’s second annual video contest challenged students in grades eight through 12 to create a short film to promote safe driving. As part of the digital technology program, the contest is being run in conjunction with Project Yellow Light, a scholarship competition that aims to raise awareness of distracted driving.
Project Yellow Light honors the memory of Hunter Garner, a 16-year-old Fredericksburg teenager who lost his life in a car crash in 2007. Garner’s parents started the program, which offers a scholarship to students who create videos that speak directly to other teenagers in an effort to prevent future tragedies. Project Yellow Light has grown from Garner’s high school to a nationally sponsored initiative.
Garner’s mother Julie helped to kick off Walsingham’s contest in November, and was present at the awards assembly to announce the school winner Monday afternoon.
A total of 61 videos were submitted for the contest, with eight sent as finalists to three external judges. Kathy Howell of Howell Creative Group, Judy Ziegler of Nova Marketing Media and Karen Peterson of WYDaily/Tide Radio judged the submissions on their ability to capture attention, clarity and persuasiveness of message, creativity and quality of product. All eight finalist videos – which represented all five grades from the upper school – were shown at the assembly before the winner was crowned.
Sophomore Dylan Bowman won the top prize for his piece, which starred a homemade puppet destroyed by crossing the path of a distracted driver.
Howell, who is Hunter Garner’s aunt, offered feedback to Bowman along with the other judges. She praised his skill in making the viewer feel empathy for the inanimate puppet, which she called “nothing short of amazing.”
All three adjudicators spoke to Bowman’s expert framing and camera work, as well as his use of music and dramatic pauses to captivate the viewer and elicit emotion.
Bowman said he got the idea for his piece from a music video that used a puppet to symbolize a person, and that it made him consider how human life is just as fragile as a doll on string. He created the creature in the film out of materials on hand with powerful results.
An avid film critic and creator, Bowman has his own YouTube channel and wants to pursue the art in college.
While he is not eligible to enter his project for the Project Yellow Light scholarship – which is open to high school seniors and college students – Julie Garner said she expects to see great things from him in the future.
Garner was connected with Walsingham Academy after Howell was a judge at last year’s contest, which focused on promoting school activities. Howell’s involvement inspired her to pitch the idea of Project Yellow Light as a future focus.
“I just knew in my heart standing up here that this is why I was asked to judge in the first place,” Howell said.
Julie Garner said it means a great deal that the project has spread and that she has the opportunity to speak eye-to-eye to the teenagers who are the target audience.
“These guys all grew up in the YouTube generation,” Garner said, which prompted a different approach to distributing the message. Rather than an adult authority figure making claims, she wanted a visual, relevant way for peers to enact change in their own communities.
Both women believe change is possible if teenagers have ownership to find a solution. Using young voices and pressure from within, Howell said they can hit a critical mass of opposition to dangerous driving habits.
She compared the movement to gradual smoking bans of the last few decades.
“Why wouldn’t texting and driving be the next thing that we can get rid of?”
To digital technology coordinator Cindy Rudy, it was a logical choice to have students use their existing technology skills in a meaningful way, while training for a world of advancing media.
“They need to not only consume but produce, and produce quality material,” she said.
The iPads the students used for the project were a gift to Walsingham last year, and now they are being used creatively for a cause.
“This is about having a voice, making a different and saving lives, guys,” Garner said, addressing the assembly of students. “And it just doesn’t get too much bigger than that.”
To learn more about Project Yellow Light, visit their website.
